During the last decade, a dramatic change in consumer eating patterns has been observed. Longer working hours, changing family structures and the pursuit of a healthier lifestyle are all factors that have influenced food purchasing decisions. As a result, consumers typically seek out foods that taste fresh, require minimal preparation time, may be microwaved, are conveniently packaged, and/or are portable.
The use of baking is one process food manufacturers may use to produce foods that meet the above-mentioned characteristics. Unfortunately, production of fresh-baked yeast-leavened bakery products are challenging due to a number of variables. For example, fresh-baked yeast-leavened bakery products must undergo yeast leavening that depends on factors such as yeast viability, temperature, pH, starch concentration, or moisture. Any variations during yeast-leavening typically results in inconsistencies in taste and/or texture in the fresh-baked yeast-leavened product.
Furthermore, inconsistencies in the texture of yeast-leavened bakery products occur, particularly when application of microwave energy is required to complete preparation. During application of microwave energy, the yeast-leavened bakery product undergoes rapid staling and toughening that changes the palatability of the yeast-leavened bakery product and hampers delivery of a fresh-baked eating experience during consumption of the microwaved yeast-leavened bakery product. Several bakers and food manufacturers have responded by incorporating large amounts of eggs and/or shortening into the yeast-based bakery dough prior to application of microwave energy to prevent toughening and staling. Unfortunately, incorporating eggs and/or shortening typically increases the cost of producing microwavable yeast-leavened bakery products.
Even more challenging for bakers and food manufacturers is to produce a frozen bakery product that can be transformed into a fresh-baked yeast-leavened bakery product using microwave energy due to the aforementioned difficulties with staling and toughening of the yeast-leavened bakery product The benefits of transforming a frozen bakery product into a fresh-baked yeast-leavened product using microwave energy includes savings in preparation time and/or labor costs incurred during yeast-leavened bakery production, rapid preparation of consistent yeast-leavened bakery products, convenience of fresh-baked yeast-leavened products, reduced inventory costs, extended product shelf-life, and ease in serving, for example. Therefore, an urgent need presently exists to cost-effectively manufacture fresh-baked yeast-leavened bakery products that may be subjected to application of microwave energy without undergoing rapid toughening and staling. Additionally, an urgent need presently exists for frozen bakery products that may be transformed into a fresh-baked yeast-leavened products through microwave energy.
The present invention includes a microwave baking dough additive that has a gum component and an enzyme component. The present invention also includes a method of controlling moisture migration and starch recrystallization in microwavable yeast-leavened bakery products. The present invention further relates to a method of transforming a frozen bakery product into a fresh-baked yeast-leavened bakery product via application of microwave energy.